The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-08-27

chivalry. There isn't man in all our set
| that compares with him-a perfect prince.
And then the Poindexter diamonds, Prim |"
| 30, it won't do to talk sop said Prim.
GAS for to-day, it means nothing Perhaps
he only comes here because it is a pleasant
place to pass the time. He said something
once about the atmosphere of mammals
drawingroom-"
80, of course! He has to kow-tow to the
mammas, and say things like that if he
wants their interest with the daughters
| They all do, always"
But like that atmosphere too"
| ''Certainly you do. You're Prim."
81 must acknowledge" maintained Prim,
''that it's always pleasant to me to be where
mamma isl
Except when Mr.. Poindexter comes
| And then l wish she was-further."
''No; it's contenting to look at her. She's
an object of pleasure to the eye. What
| eyes hers are, too-those soft blue-gray
eyes, like great jewels, half yelled in their
black lashes! And what a tea-rose skin it
is! And her figure, and the way she walks !;
she is like some one you read of; she's my
ideal of woman"
you're her darling. She had you in
possession an hour before she had me,
| that's the reason. Still, it is true that if
we only had mammals shape, and her COM
pleXion and her eyes-but then she's not
done with her eyes yet" said Iris, with a
satirical emphasis.
''Well, there are not many girls who have
such a mother, any way"
| ~ should hope not,n said Iris sIt's
mighty uncomfortable having a person
who's not too old to be your companion, and
who yet holds such authority over you as to
tell you when to go to bed"
'Why, Iris, l shouldn't think you were
fond of mamma at all"
Fond of herl Pm as fosd as most girls
are. But mamma is $3.50 exasperatingly
young, it really isn't respectable" And
just then the door opened, and mamma
came in
But may as well tell you here that I
couldn't help agreeing with Iris, if it was
undutiful mamma was so exasperating.
And as for that's being undutiful, you
couldn't feel the sense of duty to any one
so entirely your companion, except now and
then when she put on her imperial gar
ments. To be sure, she was only seventeen
years older than the youngest of US, silly as
that was. But it's the truth. And l was
the youngest, and just seventeen myself
But it did use to seem to us that, being our
mother, like all other girls mothers, she
was already old as any mother, too old to
think of without disagreeable sensations,
and we wondered what she had to look for
ward to, and sometimes we pitied her lit
tie, feeling as if really she had nothing but
the end of all things before her, and that
all the happiness she could hope for lay in
| our affairs. We regretted that her hair
wasn't gray, just as matter of propriety.
1t seemed an assumption of youth, an aifec-
! tation, that she should still have her own
teeth, and just as as if made of nice
pearl, too And her complexion was absurd :;
| every body must suppose she painted,
| with that rich color; and why in the
world she still wanted pretty things to
wear passed our understanding-at least
you know, Iris and mine; Prim never quite
sided with US, although sometimes she had
| reason to be little disturbed about it all
herself. When Uncle Melvyn sent home
to mamma that white Grape shawl, lovely
as clouds felt sure that if he had only
known how we had grown up he never
would have sent it to mamma, almost an
elderly person with one foot in the grave
Somehow Iris and 1 didn't like to say a
| great deal about it, but it was really pain
full to us that mamma had such gay and
youthful manners; that she laughed like a
| chime Of bells, quite as if she had never
! grown DID, that she absorbed so much of
the conversation when callers came We
did wish she could conduct herself in a
way more becoming her years, and we re-
solved that when we were nearly thirty
five, as she was, we would try and remem-
Der the dignity that ought to come at that
period of life, especially after having lost
a husband and being the mother of three
| l-OPnNUn nd foN
really was notifying when new acquaint-
ances looked their surprise at mamma
with her three great girls, to have to let
them form their own conjectures about
her people as being low-bred and ig-
norant, seeing that they had mar
ried her off at fourteen, and she had
| been widow since she was seven
| teen. Somehow it seemed as if they must
have been backwoods savages to have
allowed such thing, instead of being edu-
Gated and well-to-do as they were. Really
mamma was ashamed of it herself; perhaps
all the more so that her husband had turned
out tyrant, whose death in three years
after her marriage was relief You can
| judge what a tyrant by his insisting on
calling the twins Primavera and Iris But
| l was born just as he died, and mamma i'm
mediately made use of her liberty to name
me for her mother, plain Sue He ought to
nave been ashamed to take advantage of
such child anyway, if he was my father
and that's what said to mamma. But she
became all at once very lofty, and told me
never to speak in that manner again. And
do you know, l quite admired her then, and
wished shewas as imperious and proud and
dignified as that always. And yet | knew
she could hardly remember papa, and
would have been terrified and unhappy
enough to sink into her grave if he had
come back from his, after all his cruel
| treatment of her that she had half forgot
ten now. Somehow L am not sure that his
children did not inherit and carry out his
ideas that way. But l should like to know
how you would feel if person coming to
see you should suddenly leave you to wear
the willow, so taken up by your mothers
bloom and sparkle and bright pleasantly,
her smiles and graciousness and all that,
as to forget you were in existence, and
come again and ask for her! You wouldn't
like it a Bit And neither did Iris and l.
If mamma had had gray hair and worn
a cap over it, and smooth muslin hand
kerchief on her shoulders, and had dressed
in modified mourning on the street, and
walked slowly, and used glasses, and read
serious books with them good deal, and
! IoFf 70 ho